In retail stores, the retailer, the manufacturers, and customers often want to have reliable information about the products on the shelf. For apparel and high-priced items, RFID tags can be attached to these products, and RFID readers can be used to read these RFID tags to provide the needed information. For fast-moving, low-cost consumer packaged goods such as those found in supermarkets, drug stores, and convenience stores, product information can be provided using image-based product recognition system.
For creating shelf-level business intelligence based on visual recognition of products on shelves, cameras need to be installed in retailer premises for visual product analytics (VPA). In general, these cameras need to be aimed at, and usefully frame, the products on the shelves in order to support product recognition effectively and efficiently. In addition, the number of pixels per imaged product label must be high enough to support the product recognition algorithms. Furthermore, because shelf heights, camera mounting heights, and aisle widths vary from store to store and from location to location within a store, there is a need to have a design and installation tool for generating specifications of cameras and their positioning for successful sourcing, selection and installation of cameras for visual product analysis.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.